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It had been the reunion everybody had been waiting for 10 years to happen. Then when it finally happened, The Inbetweeners: Fwends Reunited was a massive let-down and there was a backlash from fans online.

Now James Buckley – one of the original four member of the cast – has piled on the criticism of the show, calling it “a disaster” and explaining what exactly went wrong.

Speaking on his podcast, Completed It Mate, the actor – who played Jay Cartwright in the show about the teenage boys at high school – pulled no punches in telling of his disappointment in how the special ended up. He also revealed that he hasn’t been able to watch it back.

‘I’m used to being criticised…’

He said: “The thing that’s really difficult with it is that, in my job, I’m used to being criticised – especially with the small amount of talent that I have, I’m wide open for criticism…

“The worst thing is when people criticise you and you go, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ It’s really hard to take.”

James Buckley (Photo: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

He added that he first though the format of the one-off show would be the main cast talking about making the comedy series. But then, host Jimmy Carr arrived: “It became a thing that wasn’t a celebration of this good thing I did in my life, it was me being taken the piss out of for hours on end.

“I didn’t have the personality or the intelligence to cope with it, especially when you’re up against someone like Jimmy Carr, who’s super quick and super funny. So I come across as a complete moron through the whole thing and also there was a bit where I got stuck.

“There would be a couple of times where I would say something and Jimmy would go, ‘Still bullshitting’. I got caught where I was acting up as Jay because there was an audience there of Inbetweeners fans and I got caught in this spot between Jay and myself where myself was going, ‘You’re acting like a fucking idiot, you’re being a moron, you’re being a dick’.

“And there was this bit where it was like, ‘Well, they’re all here and they want you to be Jay, so do it’. When the audience was there, I didn’t want to seem like a stick in the mud. I didn’t want to go, ‘Can we stop for a second because I don’t know what the fucks’s going on here – you’re talking to me like I’m Jay from The Inbetweeners. I’m really not.’ So that was another one of the reasons why it was a disaster.”

‘I was just as disappointed as everyone else’

He added: “I was just as disappointed as everyone else when that thing came out.”

The one-off special, which aired on New Year’s Day, was attacked by fans for being having “cringe interviews”, for it appearing as though “no one wanted to be there”, and for its selection of bizarre celebrity guests.

“Was expecting a new, two hour long episode of The Inbetweeners,” one fan posted, while another wrote: “2019 ruined already”. “Slightly gutted,” said another, “thought this Inbetweeners was new episodes, not this shite”.

In the wake of the criticism, Buckley apologised to fans after the show aired.

“Feeling pretty hated right now,” he wrote in a tweet. “I’m sorry to anyone who feels let down with last night’s show. I’m especially upset as it really is the fans that made The Inbetweeners a success, it certainly wasn’t me.”

Game of Thrones prequel ‘Bloodmoon’: from cast to release date, everything we know as filming starts

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Charlie Brooker reveals why Miley Cyrus is in Black Mirror season 5

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